Top Afghan general called to Washington

Gen Stanley McChrystal is summoned to explain his controversial comments about colleagues in an interview with Rolling Stone.

US Army General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, listens to a question from a reporters in the briefing room of the White House, in Washington, in May 2010.

WASHINGTON // The top US commander in Afghanistan has been summoned to Washington to explain his controversial comments about colleagues in a recent interview, Obama administration officials said today. The officials say Gen Stanley McChrystal, who has issued an apology for his comments, has been ordered to attend the monthly White House meeting on Afghanistan and Pakistan in person Wednesday rather than over a secure video teleconference, so he can discuss his comments with the US president Barack Obama and top Pentagon officials.

An article in this week's Rolling Stone magazine depicts Mr McChrystal as a lone wolf falling out of favour with many important figures in the Obama administration and unable to persuade even some of his own soldiers that his strategy can win the war. In the interview, Gen McChrystal is described by an aide as being "disappointed" in his first Oval Office meeting with president Barack Obama. The article says that although Gen McChrystal voted for Mr Obama, the two failed to connect from the start. Mr Obama called Gen McChrystal on the carpet last fall for speaking too bluntly about his desire for more troops.

"I found that time painful," Gen McChrystal said in the article, on newsstands on Friday. "I was selling an unsellable position." In Kabul on Tuesday, Gen McChrystal issued a statement saying: "I extend my sincerest apology for this profile. It was a mistake reflecting poor judgment and should never have happened." The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Adm Mike Mullen, talked with Gen McChrystal about the article on Monday night, Capt John Kirby, Mr Mullen's spokesman said today.

In a 10-minute conversation, the chairman "expressed his deep disappointment in the piece and the comments" in it, Mr Kirby said. The Rolling Stone profile, titled "The Runaway General," emerged from several weeks of interviews and travel with Gen McChrystal's tight circle of aides this spring. It includes a list of administration figures said to back Gen McChrystal, including defence secretary Robert Gates and secretary of state Hillary Clinton, and puts vice president Joe Biden at the top of a list of those who do not.

The article claims Gen McChrystal has seized control of the war "by never taking his eye off the real enemy: The wimps in the White House." Mr Biden initially opposed Gen McChrystal's proposal for additional forces last year. He favoured a narrower focus on hunting terrorists. In the interview, Gen McChrystal he said he felt betrayed by the man the White House chose to be his diplomatic partner, Ambassador Karl Eikenberry. If Mr Eikenberry had the same doubts, Gen McChrystal said he never expressed them until a leaked internal document threw a wild card into the debate over whether to add more troops last November. In the document, Mr Eikenberry said the Afghan president Hamid Karzai was not a reliable partner for the counterinsurgency strategy Gen McChrystal was hired to execute.

Gen McChrystal accused the ambassador of giving himself cover. "Here's one that covers his flank for the history books," Mr McChrystal told the magazine. "Now, if we fail, they can say 'I told you so."' There was no immediate response from Mr Eikenberry. Mr Eikenberry remains in his post in Kabul, and although both men publicly say they are friends, their rift is on full display. Gen McChrystal and Mr Eikenberry, himself a retired Army general, stood as far apart as the speakers' platform would allow during a White House news conference last month.

Mr Obama agreed to dispatch an additional 30,000 US troops to Afghanistan only after months of study that many in the military found frustrating. And the White House's troop commitment was coupled with a pledge to begin bringing them home in July 2011, in what counterinsurgency strategists advising Gen McChrystal regarded as an arbitrary deadline. Gen McChrystal said today: "I have enormous respect and admiration for President Obama and his national security team, and for the civilian leaders and troops fighting this war and I remain committed to ensuring its successful outcome."

* AP